Robots are used in the field of handling, machining and/or assembly of workpieces in a variety of fields and applications.
In this respect, the design and composition of individual units of a handling, machining and/or assembly system typically takes place individually and in dependence on the specific demands. In this respect, cell walls are furthermore typically provided in addition to the robot and to further units which serve the provision, the handling, the machining, the assembly and/or the transporting away of the workpieces. They prevent unauthorized access into the working zone of the robot or of the remaining components. The latter are also typically designed and assembled separately and respectively individually for the individual use.
It is the object of the present disclosure to simplify the planning, construction and provision of units in which robots are used.
This object is achieved in accordance with the present disclosure by various embodiments disclosed herein.
In this respect, the present disclosure shows, in one example, a robot module having a cell frame and a robot, wherein the cell frame has a base plate at which the robot is mounted and has at least one cell wall connected to the base plate, and wherein the robot module is equipped with a control module for the robot.
The robot module in accordance with the present disclosure thus provides a component which can be used in a plurality of applications without the interaction of robot module, cell frame and control module having to be constructed and manufactured again every time. The robot module can thus be produced in fairly large volumes and an in each case be adapted to the respective purpose by combination with other modules. Substantial advantages hereby result in the speed and in the costs of the construction, the manufacture and the final assembly.
The robot module is in this respect advantageously equipped such that it only has to be connected to other modules at the assembly location. In this respect, assembly work optionally no longer has to be carried out at the robot module itself. The robot can thus in particular already be completely wired to the control. The assembly times on site are hereby considerably reduced. The robot module may then be pre-assembled in a “hook-ready” manner.
The robot module is in this respect further optionally transportable as a whole. A fork lift can be used in this respect, for example, which travels beneath the base plate and transports the robot module as a whole. Alternatively or additionally, the robot module can also be transported in a hanging manner.
The robot of the robot module in accordance with the present disclosure may have a working zone which is larger than the base area of the base plate. The robot can in this respect in particular handle, in particular grip and/or machine, workpieces, which are arranged outside the robot module, via at least one free side of the cell frame.
The working zone of the robot is in this respect optionally so large that it extends at two sides of the cell frame beyond the base area thereof. The robot module can in this respect in particular be configured such that a gripper of the robot module can remove workpieces from a region which is arranged outside a first open side of the cell frame and can place them down in a second region which is arranged outside a second open side of the cell frame.
The cell frame is optionally open toward the top.
The cell frame of the robot module in accordance with the present disclosure advantageously has mechanical connection points for connection to further modules. A simple mechanical connection can hereby be established between the individual modules at the installation site. The mechanical connection points can, for example, be pins and/or pin mounts, and/or screws and/or screw domes, via which a mechanical connection takes place between a plurality of modules.
The robot module in accordance with the present disclosure can furthermore have an electrical supply, a pneumatic supply and/or a hydraulic supply. A compressed air generator and/or a hydraulic high-pressure supply can in particular be provided and/or an electrical supply which is connected to the mains and which supplies the components of the robot module with electrical energy.
The robot module can further optionally have an electrical interface, a pneumatic interface and/or a hydraulic interface for connection to further modules. The further modules can optionally access the electrical supply, the pneumatic supply and/or the hydraulic supply of the robot module through the interface. The further modules hereby do not require any separate supply, which reduces the costs and simplifies the assembly.
The robot module can furthermore have an interface which allows a coordination of the operation of the robot module with other modules. It is in this respect in particular an interface of the control module for the robot. The interface in this respect in particular allows a data exchange and/or the transmission and/or reception of control commands and/or of sensor data. The robot module can furthermore have an interface for a production control system which allows a coordination of the operation with a further production system.
The base plate of the cell frame optionally has a rectangular shape. The combination with the base plates of further modules is hereby simplified. The base plate in this respect optionally has a longer side and a shorter side.
Provision can furthermore be made that the cell frame has at least two cell walls. The cell walls are in this respect optionally connected to the base plate. The cell walls in this respect, with a completed plant set up of the robot module and other modules, provide that unauthorized persons do not have any access to the working zone of the robot module. The cell frame in this respect optionally has cell walls at two sides, while it is open at two sides. The robot module can in this respect optionally be connected to further modules at the sides at which no cell walls are provided. The cell frame can optionally also have cell walls at three sides and can be open only at one side. In this case, the robot module is connected to one or more modules at only one side.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the two cell walls are in this respect arranged at oppositely disposed sides of the base plate. The two cell walls in this respect are particularly optionally arranged at oppositely disposed narrow sides of the base plate. The longer sides of the base plate are hereby available for connection to further modules and thus a correspondingly wide region is available via which the robot of the robot module can cooperate with the components of the other modules.
In a second embodiment, the two cell walls can also be arranged at adjacent sides of the base plate. Further modules are optionally connected to the robot module diagonally in this case.
The cell frame of the robot module in accordance with the present disclosure can in this respect have vertically extending corner struts. The corner struts are in this respect optionally connected via horizontally extending cross-struts to form cell walls. A mechanically stable construction hereby results. The corner struts are in this respect advantageously connected to the base plate in their lower regions.
The corner struts optionally have mechanical connection points for connection to at least one further module. It can in this respect in particular be those mechanical connection points which were already presented in more detail above.
Provision can be made in accordance with the present disclosure that at least two of the side walls of the cell frame can be connected to one another in an upper region via a transport strut. The cell frame is hereby stiffened for the transport. The transport strut is then optionally removed again at the assembly site so that it does not restrict the working zone of the robot.
The robot module in accordance with the present disclosure optionally has an operating module. The operating module can in this respect in particular have an input/output interface. A display or a monitor can in this respect in particular be provided. Input elements such as a keyboard are further optionally provided for the input of data or control commands. The operating module is optionally arranged at an outer side of a cell wall and/or can also be equipped with a mobile operating element. The operating module optionally allows access to the control module.
The robot module in accordance with the present disclosure can furthermore have a switch cabinet. The electronic supply, pneumatic supply and/or hydraulic supply can in particular be provided in the switch cabinet. The switch cabinet is in this respect optionally accessible from an outer side of the cell wall. The operating module and the switch cabinet are in this respect optionally arranged in two different cell walls of the cell frame, in particular on oppositely disposed sides of the cell frame.
The robot module in accordance with the present disclosure is optionally a handling module, in particular for the handling of workpieces. The robot is optionally equipped or equippable with a gripper for this purpose. Alternatively or additionally, the control module can have a control routine for gripping and/or placing down workpieces via the robot.
In a possible embodiment, the robot module operates to perform a gripping of workpieces arranged in an unordered manner in a container. The control module of the robot module can in this respect in particular have an interface to an object recognition device for detecting the workpieces in the container. The control module can furthermore have control routines for evaluating the data of the object recognition device, for path planning and for controlling the gripper.
The robot module in accordance with the present disclosure can in this respect in particular be used in an apparatus for the removal of workpieces from a container such as is known from EP 2 679 352 A1.
A robot module in accordance with the present disclosure can furthermore have a buffer station which is arranged at the base plate of the robot module and on which workpieces which have been gripped by a gripper of the robot module are placed down and can be picked up again by this gripper or by another gripper.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a buffer module on which a buffer station is arranged for placing down and picking back up a workpiece. The buffer module in this respect optionally has a cell frame and a buffer station. The buffer module can in this respect in particular have a base plate and at least two cell walls. The buffer station is in this respect optionally arranged at the base plate. The buffer module in this respect optionally has two open sides.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a buffer station for placing down and picking back up a workpiece, said buffer station being able to be integrated in an output module, machining module and/or assembly module.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a feed module having a cell frame and an arrangement for providing a container having workpieces. The feed module thus also allows a particularly simple design, manufacture and assembly of an apparatus for handling workpieces. The cell frame and the arrangement for providing a container having workpieces in particular here also no longer have to be designed and assembled separately. The same advantages thus substantially result from the feed module in accordance with the present disclosure which have already been presented in more detail above with respect to the robot module in accordance with the present disclosure.
The feed module in this respect in particular serves the feed of containers having workpieces from which a robot module in accordance with the present disclosure can remove workpieces. The feed module in accordance with the present disclosure and the robot module in accordance with the present disclosure are in this respect optionally connectable to one another.
The cell frame of the feed module in this respect optionally has mechanical connection points. The connection points in this respect in particular provides a connection to connection points of the robot module.
Further advantageously, the feed module in accordance with the present disclosure can have an electrical interface, a pneumatic interface and/or a hydraulic interface for connection to a corresponding interface of the robot module in accordance with the present disclosure. The feed module can in this respect in particular be supplied via the interface with electrical energy, pneumatic energy and/or hydraulic energy. The feed module hereby does not require any separate electrical supply, pneumatic supply and/or hydraulic supply in an example embodiment.
The feed module can furthermore have an interface which enables a coordination of the operation of the feed module with other modules. The interface in this respect in particular provides a connection to the control module of the robot module. Provision can in this respect be made in a possible embodiment that actuators arranged in the feed module are controlled via the control module of the robot module. Provision can furthermore be made that the control module receives data from sensors which are arranged in the feed module. In an alternative embodiment, however, the feed module can also have its own control module which controls actuators of the feed module and/or evaluates sensors of the feed module, with such a control module of the feed module optionally communicating via an interface with the control module of the robot module. The feed module can furthermore have an interface for the production control system which allows a coordination of the operation with a further production system.
The feed module in accordance with the present disclosure optionally has a cell frame with a base plate at which the arrangement for providing a container having workpieces is arranged. Provision can furthermore be made that the cell frame of the feed module has cell walls at at least two sides and optionally at three sides and is open at at least one side. The cell frame can in this respect in particular optionally be connected to the robot module via the open side. The connection between the robot module and the feed module in this respect optionally takes place in a manner such that a gripper of the robot module can grip into at least one container, which is provided by the arrangement for providing a container, and can remove workpieces from it.
Provision can be made in accordance with the present disclosure that at least two of the side walls of the cell frame can be connected to one another in an upper region via a transport strut. The cell frame is hereby stiffened for the transport. The transport strut is then optionally removed again at the assembly site so that it does not restrict the working zone of the robot.
The arrangement for providing a container having workpieces is in this respect optionally accessible from the outside at at least one side, in particular via a door arranged at at least one side and/or via an automatic feed and/or removal path arranged at at least one side. Full containers are optionally fed in and empty containers are removed again via this side. The side from which the arrangement for providing a container having workpieces is accessible from the outside optionally lies opposite the open side.
The feed and/or removal direction of the container feed and/or removal path can in this respect be arranged either in parallel with the open side or perpendicular thereto depending on the embodiment, with the transport direction of the container feed path in this case being in the opposite sense to the transport direction of the container removal path.
In an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the open side is optionally a broad side of the feed module. A broad side of the feed module is thus optionally open; the provision and removal of the containers take place at the oppositely disposed side and respective cell walls are provided at the narrow sides and separate the working zone of the robot.
In an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the arrangement for providing a container having workpieces can receive at least two containers. This allows a fast continued working after a first container has been emptied.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the feed module has a separating apparatus via which a feed zone for a container can be separated form a working zone of the gripper. Such a separating apparatus is in particular of advantage when the containers are fed in individually and removed again via a transport vehicle, for example. The separating apparatus in this case provides that the robot can still remove workpieces from a container located in the working zone of the robot, while a new container is fed in the feed zone or an emptied container is removed.
A hood can in this respect in particular be provided which is arranged in the feed module such that it can be moved selectively over the feed zone for the one or the other container. The hood can in this respect in particular be displaceable and/or pivotable.
In an alternative embodiment, the feed module can have a transport arrangement for the transporting of the containers in the interior of the feed module. This transport arrangement can in this respect in particular cooperate with an automatic container feed path and/or container removal path. The transport arrangement for transporting the containers in the interior of the fed module in this respect in particular allows a container emptied by the robot to be transported on and to be fed to the removal path. In a possible embodiment, a light barrier is provided in this respect which secures the feed zone.
The transport arrangement can in this respect in a possible embodiment be a transverse shuttle which displaces the containers in the interior of the feed module perpendicular to a feed direction or removal direction of the automatic feed and/or removal path. The containers are therefore supplied full at one side, are emptied in the interior of the feed module and are then displaced via the transverse shuttle to the inlet zone of the removal path from where they are again removed.
Alternatively, the transport arrangement of the feed module can be a rotary table on which the containers can be arranged, with the containers being travelable by rotating the rotary table from a feed zone of the feed module into a working zone of the gripper of the robot module and vice versa.
The feed module can furthermore cooperate with a driverless transport system.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises an output module, a machining module and/or an assembly module for connection to a robot module such as was presented above. The output module, machining module and/or assembly module in this respect in particular have an end placement area on which the workpieces are placed down in a separated manner and/or in a defined position by a gripper of the robot module. The module in this respect further advantageously has mechanical connection points for connecting to a robot module such as was presented above. An output module in this respect optionally has a transport path for the workpieces via which the workpieces can be transported away. A machining and/or assembly module optionally has a machining and/or assembly unit by which workpieces can be machined and/or assembled.
The output module, machining module and/or assembly module optionally has/have a cell frame which optionally has a base plate and/or one or more side walls.
Provision can be made in accordance with the present disclosure that at least two of the side walls of the cell frame can be connected to one another in an upper region via a transport strut. The cell frame is hereby stiffened for the transport. The transport strut is then optionally removed again at the assembly site so that it does not restrict the working zone of the robot.
The cell frame optionally has mechanical connection points. The connection points in this respect in particular provides a connection to connection points of the robot module.
The present disclosure furthermore comprises a handling plant for workpieces having a robot module and having at least one feed module and/or having at least one output module, machining module and/or assembly module, such as have been presented above.
The present disclosure will now be described in more detail with reference to embodiments and to drawings.